Don’t Mess With The Lady

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday (5 Dec 2019), that the House is moving forward to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. “Our democracy is what is at stake.  The president leaves us no choice but to act.“
As she was leaving the press briefing platform she was asked if she hated President Donald Trump.   Pelosi turned and pointed at the reporter asking the question and said:  “I don’t hate anybody.  We don’t hate anybody.  Not anybody in the world.  Don’t accuse me.“
She returned to the podium to continue:  “I think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence.  I think he is cruel when he doesn’t deal with helping our dreamers.  I think he’s in denial about the climate crisis.“
Impeachment, she emphasized, was about protecting the “Constitution of the United States,” rather than about policy disagreements or dislike of the president which could wait for the election.
“As a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me.  I don’t hate anyone.“
Speaker Pelosi continued, saying she prayed for the president, and, in fact did so every day.
As she turned to leave the stage she concluded: “So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.“
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No Small Thing

[Journalist] independence is no small thing.  It marks the distinction between tyranny and democracy.  And in a world where budding authoritarians have advanced by blurring the difference, there was a clarity in the spectacle of a tyrant’s fury visited up a man armed only with a pen.  Because the strongmen of the world only look strong.  All despots live in fear of their people.  To see genuine strength, look to the spaces where individuals dare to describe what’s going on in front of them.
—  Karl Vick
From his article: “The Guardians And The War On Truth“
From Time Magazine, dtd: December 24th / 31st, 2018
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Remember Your Duty In November

The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few.  We are strong, and we are free from tyranny as long as each one of us remembers his or her duty as a citizen.  Whether it’s to report a pothole at the top of your street or lies in a State of the Union address, speak out!  Ask those questions.  Demand that truth.  Democracy is not a free ride, man.  I’m here to tell you.  But, this is where we live.  And if we do our job, this is where our children will live.  God bless America.
—  Joseph C. Wilson IV (played by Sean Penn)
Former United States diplomat who’s wife (Valerie Plame) was depicted as a CIA “operative” outed by the White House during the Iraq War
The quote is taken from the movie: “Fair Game“
[I will leave it to future historians to settle the dispute of Ms. Plame’s status, the reason for Mr. Wilson’s trips to Africa and whether or not the Bush Administration publicly “outed” a government asset.  —  KMAB]
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It Is No Secret

It is no secret in my country, in the USA, democracy and freedom upon freedom is under attack.  It is dizzying and maddening to say the very least.  These are radical — sometimes, often even, inexplicably complicated and complex times — and one of the things that pains and concerns me the most is the attack on the truth.  The eroding of our ability to engage in intelligent, respectful and respectable discourse as a humane society.
As a nation, as a world, as a global network of artists, writers, creatives, connected ever faster and with more and more urgency, we are losing touch with the essentials for growth, nourishment, deep thought, deep commitment to our soul’s purpose of truth-telling, no matter how painful or uncomfortable that may be.
I call myself a writer.  Maybe you do, too, or maybe you don’t.  But either way, we are all contributors to language, we are all users and shapers of words and ideas, how we use them to build up or destroy, to honor our common dignity or to pick away at it.
—  Allison Marie Conway
[This quote was found at: https://allisonmarieconway.com/
The specific link is: https://allisonmarieconway.com/2018/08/13/on-art-democracy-dangerous-play/
Please visit the original site if you have a spare minute (or two).  —  KMAB]
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But Me

I swear to the Lord,
I still can’t see,
Why Democracy means,
Everybody but me.
―  Langston Hughes
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In Spite Of The President

LIBERTY!
FREEDOM!
DEMOCRACY!
True anyhow no matter how many
Liars use those words.
―  Langston Hughes
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We Must Dissent

We cannot play ostrich.  Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear.  Liberty cannot bloom amid hate.  Justice cannot take root amid rage.  America must get to work.  In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind.  We must dissent from the indifference.  We must dissent from the apathy.  We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust.  We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away.  We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope.  We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership.  We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.
The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls.  But it cannot build bridges.  That job belongs to you and me.  Afro and White, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, our fates are bound together.  We can run from each other but we cannot escape each other.  We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same.  America’s diversity offers so much richness and opportunity.  Take a chance, won’t you?  Knock down the fences that divide.  Tear apart the walls that imprison.  Reach out, freedom lies just on the other side.  We should have liberty for all.
—  Thurgood Marshall
Former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Acceptance Speech for the Liberty Medal
July 4, 1992
Independence Hall
Philadelphia, PA
[I “found” this quote when it was read (twice) in the Netflix TV series “Daredevil” which I reviewed earlier this month.  The sentences about “dissent” were quoted.  —  KMAB]
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